This debacle led to an informal request from Congress asking the Secret Service—Treasury Department police, until then mostly concerned with fighting counterfeiting but doing other stuff on the side—with providing security for the President and other high-ranking officials. Theodore Roosevelt quickly made this arrangement permanent.

Though currently seen as little more than a footnote in presidential history, McKinley was phenomenally popular during his time. A former lawyer, political operator and Governor of Ohio, he gained the presidency mostly by running a "front porch campaign", giving his speeches and addressing his supporters from his own house in Canton, OH.note (Mount McKinley was named thus by a prospector to support him during this period) He ran mostly on a platform of protecting the economy with high tariffs; he had been chairman of the congressional committee which had drafted the "McKinley Tariff" of 1890, under which the average duty on imported goods rose to almost 50%. He also advocated keeping the gold standard at a time when his Democratic opponent, William Jennings Bryan, was promoting the free coining of silver (and little else). When that issue failed to excite the nation, McKinley won the election handily. Inheriting a depression from predecessor Grover Cleveland, the economy significantly rebounded during McKinley's time (in part due to the Spanish-American War), with unemployment dropping by over 10% during his first term. The dollar was placed entirely on the gold standard, tariff rates were increased, and relations with labor unions improved significantly.

The Spanish-American War broke out during his first term in 1898, mostly over the issue of independence for Cuba. The American victory was quick and decisive with both the army and navy winning nearly every engagement with the Spanish. Ironically, McKinley tried to avoid war for a long time despite public opinion favoring the Cubans, but he accepted war when it was clear that diplomacy was no longer an option (and Congress essentially forced his hand; after all, Congress declares war, not the President). When the dust had settled, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines came under direct American control (though the residents of the Phillippines spent the next four years fighting a violent guerrilla war against the Americans), while Cuba was granted independence but remained very much under the American sphere of influence. At the same time, the formerly independent nation of Hawaii was annexed after local American plantation owners overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy, further expanding American influence in the Pacific.

McKinley also sent 2,500 troops to join the eight-power coalition (Russia, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the USA) in suppressing the xenophobic 'Boxer' rebels in China. As You Know this ended with the looting and razing of the entire city, and the (sexual) assault of many of its inhabitants, fueling further xenophobia and sowing the seeds of specifically anti-American sentiment among the country's elites (who actually knew the differences between the barbarian nations). McKinley joined the coalition to prevent the USA's embassy staff in Beijing from being killed, prevent the Qing Empire from taxing foreign companies or raising taxes on foreign imports (tariffs) above the 2% which the Eight Powers had forced them to agree to, and to prevent any of the other seven powers from formally annexxing any territories. McKinley avoided annexations and opposed them by others because the Philippines debacle had soured the US public on formal empire, and US nationalists and anti-Imperialists alike agreed that other countries expanding their empires was bad. This pursuit of a highly unequal trade and diplomatic relationship with the Qing Empire, and opposition to annexations, was termed 'the Open Door Policy'. In upholding it the USA helped to spark and shaped the peace concluding the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895 and Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.

This combination of strong economy, territorial gain, and success on the international stage meant it was relatively easy for him to win a second term in 1900, which he barely got a chance to enjoy before his untimely assassination. He was the last American Civil War veteran to be president (serving alongside fellow president Rutherford B. Hayes) and was also the first president to be elected during an Olympic year (the year of the first modern games, 1896), to ride in an automobile, and to campaign by telephone. McKinley is on the $500 dollar bill, but these have been discontinued since 1969. His two elections saw voter turnout above 70% each time, the last time voter turnout was above the 70% mark.

Some historians consider McKinley to be a pretty underrated President. Initially considered to be weak-willed and easily influenced by the general public, there is a growing opinion in the historical community that his leadership successfully helped the United States enter the international stage. The country's first non-continental territories were won during his time in office, and he took steps to restrain European countries when they were on the verge of trying to take parts of China as colonies. Additionally, America recovered from a stinging depression and prosperity resumed. He also set the stage for the Republicans dominating the White House for the next few decades, making him easily one of the most effective party-leader Presidents. On the other hand, he is often criticized for annexing Hawaii and for his administration's actions in the Philippines. In the Philippine–American War, over 200,000 Filipinos died (most of them civilians) in an unsuccessful struggle for independence, with 5,000 Americans also dead.

He was a very kind and well-meaning man - after he was shot, he literally begged the people at the exposition not to form a mob and attack his assassin, and to break the news gently to his wife. McKinley went on national speaking tours in order to stay in touch with voters and held regular press meetings. His wife, Ida, developed epilepsy after both of her daughters died as toddlers. He kept her by his side at all time in case she had a seizure.

The worst natural disaster in American history, the 1900 Galveston hurricane, happened on his watch. Over 8,000 people in Texas lost their lives to an incredibly destructive hurricane.

One example of how much McKinley was overshadowed by his successor, Theodore Roosevelt: the Buffalo house where Roosevelt was sworn in upon McKinley's death is a national historic site, while the house a block down the street where McKinley died was torn down, the site now a school parking lot. On the other hand, he did get a mountain named after him, though the Koyukon people who live nearby had something to say about that. It would be officially renamed back to its original name Denali by the Obama Administration in 2015, nearly two years short of a whole century after the naming of "Mount McKinley".

The arrest of Leon Czolgosz by a racist Buffalo cop was the original point of departure for the Web original Alternate HistoryReds and remains an important differentiating event in the rewrite. In both versions, McKinley survives and thus history is radically altered.

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